Mbada revenue breaches $1 billion mark

Published: 10 March 2014

Mbada Diamonds says it has realised over $1 billion in sales revenue in nearly five years of operations in the Marange diamond fields in Manicaland Province.

This is in spite of years of operating under western imposed sanctions which denied Zimbabwe's diamond miners, including Mbada, access to lucrative European markets.

However, sanctions on the diamond miners were scraped culminating in Zimbabwe holding two diamond auctions in Antwerp, Belgium. The first sale conducted last December totaled 279 723 carats and grossed $10,7 million while the second auction done in February grossed $70 million.

Mbada Diamonds board chairman Dr Robert Mhlanga said the company had so far contributed about 75 percent of the total paid to treasury by all the players in the diamond sector in Zimbabwe.

"Mbada Diamonds in turnover terms from our inception we have now exceeded the $1 billion mark and the bulk of that money actually goes to the national fiscus," he said.

He however did not reveal the volume of diamonds produced. Mbada is a joint venture company between Government through the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and the New Reclamation Group of South Africa.

Turning to reports of depletion of the resource in Marange, Mhlanga said a recent survey they conducted revealed the existence of other forms of diamonds in the area.

"We have been there now for approximately five years and we primarily have been mining alluvials and I can say with certainty that particular trait of the resource its depleting, however the diamonds we are mining there are not only of alluvium genesis we also have conglomerates you also have kimberlitic diamonds.

"As Mbada we have carried out extensive geological work and I can say with certainty that the diamonds are there and they are housed in primarily these two sources, the conglomerate which is deep seated, and the kimberlite which is even more deep-seated."

He said with time they would venture into underground mining highlighting that it was equally rewarding.

"Why people tend to shy away from mining these particular reserves (conglomerate and kimberlites) is because of the cost implications, if you are going to go for the kimberlites you need to put in very serious money.

However the returns are equally exponential, you will get a lot of money because when you do kimberlitic mining the bulk of these diamonds from our assessment are gem quality diamonds, they might be fewer but the quality is exponentially higher," he said.

Zimbabwe, with a huge resource base of between 60 000 and 70 000 hectares in the Marange diamond fields, has potential to supply 25 percent of global demand and has also been tipped to become the third largest producer by the end of this decade.

- New Ziana

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